WPAC 2025: Heartbreak for India debutant Haney in men's Discus Throw F37; two more World records set in New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) India’s 19-year-old Haney suffered a heartbreak on his World Championships debut in the men’s Discus Throw F37 final as he was in medal contention from his opening throw onwards until Japan’s Yamato Shimbo vaulted from fourth place to silver in the final round and edged the Rohtak lad from the podium on Thursday.

Haney was in the lead after the first round with a throw of 51.22m but was unable to improve on that in his subsequent visits to the throwing circle. Mexico’s Luis Carlos Lopez found a winning throw of 56.59m, a new Championships Record, on his second try, Mykola Zhabnyak (Ukraine) went ahead in the fourth round with 52.70.

Yamato Shimbo uncorked a personal best of 54.50 on his last try to leave the home athlete in fourth place. Haney had a chance of returning to a medal position by producing his best throw of the morning, but it appeared as if the pressure got to the youngest competitor in the field and he managed 46.34m, the shortest of his four valid throws.

Meanwhile, Saeid Afrooz of Iran in the men’s Javelin Throw F34 final and Safia Djelal (Algeria) in the women’s Shot Put F57 added a world record each to the growing list of marks created at the2025 World Para Athletics Championships in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

Saeid Afrooz's 41.52m improved on his own mark of 41.16 set in Kobe in 2024 while Safia Djelal’s 11.67m effort bettered her own mark of 11.62m set in 2024. The number of world records set here has risen to 21 while 65 new championship records have been established so far.

Jin Hua’s victory in the 1500m T54 final with a championship record gave China a glimmer of hope that it would pitchfork itself over Brazil in the medals table, but those aspirations where shattered when Brazil won the last two gold medals on offer on Thursday morning.

The 24-year-old Bartolomeu da Silva won the men’s 400m T37 gold with a new meet mark of 50.13 seconds and his Brazilian compatriot Maria C A da Silva claimed the women’s 400m T47 crown in 56.17 seconds. These two golds consolidated Brazil’s pole position in the charts with 10 gold, 15 silver and 7 bronze.

India are in fourth at the medal standings with 4gold, 4silver and a bronze. China remained in second place with 8 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze ahead of Poland, which has 7 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze.

--IANS

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